It’s been a while. 

We have been busy and have become lazy about posting. However, I am sitting in the Rochester International Airport waiting on a plane that is slightly “Behind Schedule” so I am going to fill my time writing about our most recent trip to NYC.

We decided to fly to NYC for my sister Bayleys’s bday. She was hoping get lucky and catch a performance of Hamilton and experience some of the city.

Sarah and I didn’t realize that she hadn’t really been to the city before. Once we heard that we decided to spend a good amount of time walking around and showing her our favorite usual spots.

We got in on a Friday evening touching down at LaGuardia. We immediatly called for an Uber to the city…thinking this would be the quickest option. WRONG. LaGuardia has some nasty construction going on and our Uber guy was having a hard time getting to us. About an hour later we finally we making our way to the hotel.

I had used Priceline so solidify a hotel in the Chelsea area. It was a DoubleTree. I feel like the Name-Your-Own Price tool on Priceline is no longer reliable. This hotel was just alright, we have stay in much nicer before for less money. They did give us a warm chocolate cookie upon arrival though…points.

Next we hit up a Noodle joint a couple blocks from our hotel. Jun-Men 249 9th Ave, Chelsea.  The three of us were freezing and this tiny place warmed our cockles. We put in an obligatory order of pork steambuns that were perfect, they even made sure to change the plate to serve 3 buns in order for us each to have one. I ate the Kimchi Ramen, so good. We were each thoroughly pleased with our food.

We stopped into an Irish bar on our walk back to the hotel. It was called Maggie Riley’s. The bar tender was friendly and the people inside seemed warm and pleasant. We each had one beer and decided we were way to tired to stay out late so we headed back and retired for the night.

We got up early in search of an authentic Jewish bagel shop and then the ever popular Hamilton tickets. 

We found Murray’s Bagels – 242 8th Ave. It was busy and smelled delicious. Food was served at a fast moving deli-style counter. On principle I had to order an everything bagel “Nova Scotia” – this means it is served with a schmear, Nova Scotia Salmon, capers, and tomatoes. It was awesome but it had way to much cream cheese. 

TKTS was not open yet so we walked to the Highline and strolled down to the Chelsea Market.

The Highline is so cool. It was very cold but the views and scenery of the old raised railroad path are so interesting and it gives you a great perspective of the city. There is a weird fake rubber man in his underwear too.

We then wandered through the Chelsea Market, one of my personal favorite spots. We warmed up and grabbed some delicious little donuts and browsed the shops.

Next we headed towards Times Square to try and catch tickets to a show at TKTS. My Dad taught me this past summer that TKTS is the most affordable way to see a show on Broadway. Him and I were able to catch 9th row center for Kinky Boots. The selections at TKTS on this particular day were not great, sadly no Hamilton. There was a new show that looked interesting though, titled In Transit. We decided to wait and buy the tickets later for the evening 8:00pm show.

Our friends Jess and Cappy were in the city for the weekend as well so we met up with them at yet another Irish bar right on the edge of Times Square. Sarah’s good friend and NYC resident, Luciana also met up with is here. We warmed up with a few drinks and decided to head to a late lunch and check out TKTS once again.

We snagged pretty great tickets for In Transit. One of the leads was Justin Guarini from the first season of American Idol. He was the runner-up to Kelly Clarkson and had a giant Afro-remember him now?

The show was based around the NYC metro system. It was several stories about different people that were all a bit connect – similar to Love Actually. There was no orchestra pit or band for this production. Every sound in the show was made from a human. 

The Circle In The Square Theatre is unique in the fact that the stage is set up like a catwalk and the audience sits in a U-shape around it. For this production they had a conveyor belt strip down the middle of the stage that the cast would use to hop on and off of during numbers. The show was great, very unique concept.

After this we went over to Hell’s Kitchen. We bar hopped to a few places and landed in surprise!!….another Irish bar. We finished the night out getting a bit saucey with Luciana and then retired for the evening.

The next morning it was time to say goodbye to the Big Apple and head back home to a much quieter part of New York State. We caught an Uber once again to LaGuardia. It was much quicker this time, we got in and through security on no time at all. 

We landed back in ROC by 1:00pm on Sunday. Not a bad little weekend trip!

Next stop Colorado!